New Fed Governor Miran dismisses as ‘silly’ the notion that Trump influences his decisions

New Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran on Sept. 19 defended his call for more aggressive rate cuts at the Fed’s latest meeting, downplaying tariffs’ risks to inflation and concerns that his actions are influenced by President Donald Trump.

The rushed confirmation of Miran, as well as the Trump administration’s efforts to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook, have raised concerns over the central bank’s autonomy. Miran has maintained that he will operate independently from politics and make decisions based on his own interpretation of data and the economy.

Miran said the president called him the morning of Sept. 16 to congratulate him on his new role but two did not discuss the upcoming vote. Miran was the sole governor to dissent for a half-percentage-point cut, rather than the quarter-percentage-point cut pushed forward by the Fed.

“He didn’t ask me to do any particular actions, I didn’t commit to any particular actions. I put down dots based on my economic analysis, and that’s what I’ll continue to do,” Miran told CNBC’s “Money Movers” on the Street Sept. 19, his first interview since joining the Fed.

Miran, who is taking a leave of absence from a White House advisory role, called arguments that he is doing the president’s bidding “silly.”

He added he didn’t resign from the White House Council of Economic Advisers because his Fed term ends in less than five months. If asked to remain past January, he said he would resign from his advisory role “immediately.”

Trump for months has pressured the Fed for more aggressive interest rate cuts, and is working to fill the seven-member board with his appointees. These efforts added “heightened political tension” to the latest Fed meeting, according to a Sept. 17 note from EY-Parthenon chief economist Gregory Daco.

“This dynamic could shape market expectations, elevate risk premia, and constrain the Fed’s policy flexibility if its credibility comes into question,” Daco said. “History has shown that when central banks operate under political influence, economic outcomes tend to be suboptimal.”

The Senate narrowly confirmed Miran’s position on the Fed’s board of governors just before the kickoff to its two-day September meeting. He fills the empty seat left by former Governor Adriana Kugler, who stepped down in August.

Miran, who took a more aggressive stance on rate cuts in his first Fed meeting, said he doesn’t see evidence of “any material inflation from tariffs.”

“I see very little evidence of any of it to date,” he told CNBC. “I see disinflation coming from the border policies. And I see some downward pressures coming up from other forces too, like deregulation.”

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has previously said there are signs that tariffs are starting to show up in consumer prices, although a “reasonable base case” is that tariffs spur a one-time price shift rather than a more persistent inflationary effect.

“But it is also possible that the inflationary effects could instead be more persistent, and that is a risk to be assessed and managed,” Powell said at a news conference following the latest Fed meeting. “Our obligation is to ensure that a one-time increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem.”

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Miran confirmed he was the sole Fed governor to project rates drop aggressively to 2.75% to 3% in 2025. The other officials see rates falling no further than a range of 3.5% to 3.75%.

He said he plans to share more details for his reasoning during a Sept. 22 speech, and hopes to convince other governors to take a more aggressive approach to rate cuts.

“I was sworn in just about an hour before the meeting started,” Miran said. “The way the Fed works is by persuasion. And so I’ll be making my arguments in the coming weeks and months, and I hope that I’ll be able to persuade some of my colleagues as we go along.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump pick Stephan Miran downplays concerns over Fed independence